Wireless strategies may be deployed by business operations, including distributors, retail stores, manufacturers, etc., to improve the efficiency and accuracy of business operations. Wireless strategies may also be deployed by such business operations to avoid the insidious effects of constantly increasing labor and logistics costs. In a typical wireless implementation, workers are linked to a management system executing on a corresponding computer enterprise via a mobile wireless transceiver. The wireless transceiver may be used as an interface to the management system to direct workers in their tasks, e.g., by instructing workers where and/or how to pick, pack, put away, move, stage, process or otherwise manipulate the items within the operator's facility. The wireless transceiver may also be used in conjunction with a suitable input device to scan, sense or otherwise read tags, labels or other identifiers to track the movement of designated items within the facility.
In order to move items about the operator's facility, workers often utilize materials handling vehicles, including for example, forklift trucks having a main body and a mast or turret, hand and motor driven pallet trucks, etc. However, disruptions in the operation of such materials handling vehicles impact the ability of the management system and corresponding wireless strategy to obtain peak operating efficiency. Moreover, conventional enterprise software, including corresponding management systems do not account for, track, communicate with or otherwise provide insight into the availability, health, status, suitability of the materials handling vehicles to perform the required work. Still further, conventional enterprise software, including corresponding management systems do not provide tools to manage access to, and operation of, the available materials handling vehicles within the facility in an efficient and integrated manner.
Impacts on or made by materials handling vehicles can assist in evaluating the availability, health and status of such vehicles. Accordingly, this application relates to sensing impacts on or made by materials handling vehicles and, more particularly, to an impact sensing system for use on a materials handling vehicle which senses both g-forces and momentum changes to detect impacts and to determine which impacts are sufficiently significant to be reported, logged or otherwise brought to the attention of an operator of the vehicle and the operator's management using wireless strategies as described herein.